Conservative

• To review and to improve disabled access to licensed premises, parking and housing and introduce new regulations if necessary.
• To work with providers of everyday services such as energy and telecoms to reduce extra costs incurred by disability.
• To introduce a new Mental Health bill, “putting parity of esteem at the heart of treatment.”
• To extend Equalities Act protections against discrimination to mental health conditions that are episodic and fluctuating.
• To train 1 million members of the public in basic mental health awareness and first aid, to break the stigma of mental illness.

Labour

• Labour believes in the social model of disability – that it is society which disables people, and it is our job to remove those barriers. The previous Labour government signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). The next Labour government will sign the UNCRPD into UK law.
• To make the EHRC truly independent, not part of the Government it is meant to scrutinise, and give it the appropriate funding to carry out its functions.
• Labour will also consult on making terminal illness a protected characteristic under the Equality Act, to protect against workplace discrimination, building on the Dying to Work campaign.
• A Labour Government will consult on an Economic Equality Bill to tackle entrenched inequality.
• Labour will give British Sign Language full recognition as a recognised language.

Liberal Democrats

• To review the Equality and Human Rights Commission to determine whether it is effectively fulfilling its role and if it is adequately funded.
• To increase accessibility to public places and transport by making more stations wheelchair accessible, improving the legislative framework governing Blue Badges, setting up a benchmarking system for accessible cities, and bring into force the Equality Act on discrimination by private hire vehicle and taxi operators.
• To oppose any attempt to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights or to abolish or water down the Human Rights Act.
• To introduce a Digital Bill of Rights to protect people’s power of control of their own information and supported individuals over large corporations and preserves the neutrality of the web.

If you'd like to find out more about the parties manifestos, click the links below:

Conservative 2017 Manifesto

Labour 2017 Manifesto

Liberal Democrats 2017 Manifesto

Every vote will make a difference, so to bring about the future you want, you’ll really need to play your part and vote on 8th May 2017!